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Suspended In Dusk II has finally arrived! I’m very pleased with this anthology. The paperback edition is one of the nicest and most well-made small press books I’ve ever held in my hot little hands. Special thanks go to Grey Matter Press for its lovely production!

The anthology features an introduction from the amazing Angela Slatter and stories from:

If you decide to pick up a copy, please consider leaving an honest review on Amazon and Good Reads, if you use it. Reviews can help sales, which in turn allow publishers and creatives to keep creating fiction and content you’ll enjoy!

The Suspended in Dusk 2 anthology was picked up by a new publisher, Grey Matter Press. As with part 1 of the series, Suspended in Dusk 2 is anthology of horror and dark fiction that continues examines themes of change and the moments between the light and the dark.

I’m very thrilled to announce that January 2018 will see the publication of Suspended in Dusk 2.

Just check out this sexy terrifying cover, created by the incredibly talented Dean Samed:

The book features and fantastic introduction from British Fantasy Award and World Fantasy award winning author Angela Slatter, in addition to 17 stories from some of the best horror and dark fiction writers today.

There is currently a Good Reads giveaway running for the Double Barrel Horror Vol. 2 anthology! Double Barrel Horror Vol. 2 is a fantastic anthology featuring two stories each by 6 writers: John Boden, Simon Dewar, Patrick Freivald, Chad Lutzke, Karen Runge and M.B. Vujacic.

“Like the dual blasts from a sawed-off shotgun, these twelve stories pack a brain shredding wallop that kept me turning pages as fast as my fingers could tap the screen. Pint Bottle Press has outdone themselves with this second volume of twisted tales from six of horror’s most talented storytellers.” – Shane D. Keene, ‘Shotgun Logic’ and ‘HellNotes’

Head to the Link below (or click the cover above) and enter to win one of two copies of the anthology!

My tale “Everything is Squamous” will be featured in the forthcoming Midnight Echo Magazine #12. Edited by Shane Jiraiya Cummings and Anthony Ferguson. Midnight Echo is returning from a hiatus (yay), and I’m really chuffed to have a story in a magazine that has featured the very best Australian horror writers – Alan Baxter, Kaaron Warren , Jason Nahrung, Jason Fischer, Joanne Anderton, Amanda J Spedding, Felicity Dowker and others- and other fantastic writers such as Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee, Jonathan Maberry, James A Moore, Kristin Dearborn, and more.

Inspired by the theme song from the Lego Movie and online debate over HPL’s racism and his legacy, this story is about a young black man and the horrific nightmare his life becomes when he literally bumps into Howard Philips Lovecraft on the streets of Red Hook. (I think I’d just finished reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff around that time too and was feeling a little bold. p.s buy that book!)

Truth be told, I’m really nervous about the publication of this story. Its the first time I’ve ever written a POC as a protagonist and I hope I didn’t screw the pooch. Secondly, Some beta-readers loved the story, including one editor friend who said she’d publish it if I submitted it to her. Several other beta readers were actually offended by it and felt that I went too far in presenting a caricature of a virulently racist Lovecraft as the story’s antagonist (which was kinda the point, given he presented racist caricatures of people in his own writings and correspondence).

Either way, if it raises some hackles or gives some readers enjoyment, I’d say it’s a win. Art’s meant to make you think and feel something, after all. I suspect there’ll have never been a story quite like this published befohttps://www.amazon.com/Midnight-issue-Shane-Jiraiya-Cummings-ebook/dp/B078MGBFM4/re.

Pleased to announce I have a release by Pint Bottle Press as part of their Double Barrel Horror line up. The chapbook contains my stories ‘Black Rock Boys‘ and ‘The Perfect Figure-Eight‘. It’s available on Amazon. I love the camp-as-fuck pulpy clip art-style cover!

Black Rock Boys is a bit of weird-maybe-cosmic-horror story about a boy who finds help when he’s on the run from his girlfriends vengeful brother.

The Perfect Figure-Eight is literary-horror-but-maybe-also-magic-realism, about teen love, and racing, and the cycle of pain and violence that swathes through our lives and off into the lives of others.

Very much enjoying what Pint Bottle Press is doing. Like a novella, the chapbook format gives readers an introduction to an author without them having to commit to a full novel. And a 99c, you cant go wrong.

These stories will also be collected in the forthcoming paperback anthology edited by Matthew Weber, Double Barrel Horror Vol. 2, also from Pint Bottle Press. They’ll feature alongside double shots of horror and dark fiction from the likes of John Boden, Patrick Freivald, Chad Lutzke, Karen Runge and M.B. Vujacic

I’m editing a novel Fall to Rise for Dark Recesses Press, by an author called Lucas Pederson. DRP intends to release the guys book at the Scares That Care Weekend,July 21-23, 2017 DOUBLETREE BY HILTON WILLIAMSBURG, VA . That, in and of itself isnt really unusual, however, for Lucas it’s a bit personal.

Lucas Pederson

Lucas’ mother has developed Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis which is this incurable neurological disease which in the end stops your breathing and kills you. So going to Scares That Care Weekend would be a really big deal for him.

Lucas’ mum

Lucas has created a gofundme campaign to raise some money to assist Lucas to attend his own book launch, but also to put some funds towards supporting his mother’s medical bills and, with luck, the Scares that Care charity. Click the go fund me logo below to go to Lucas’ campaign page and please consider donating to support Lucas and his mum.

Scares That Care is a fully above board 501(C)3 registered charity, and I encourage you to find out more about them by clicking this banner:

I’m pleased to announce my new role as Executive Editor for Dark Recesses Press, owned and run by publisher Bailey Hunter.

DRP has brought me on board to help with a little bit of everything, and I’m looking forward to the challenge. There are some upcoming projects at DRP that I’m very excited about, and which I plan to be up to my elbows in. Keep your eyes peeled for forthcoming DRP news!

I just sent this to Books of the Dead Press via email and will be sending it to their last-known mailing address via registered mail. I have also decided to post this here to ensure that the message is recieved.

—–

Dear Roy,

I’m writing to you to express my sheer frustration and bewilderment at the lack of communication over the last few months. I’ve tried contacting you several times and have not received any response to my attempts at contact since October 1.

I signed Suspended in Dusk 2 with you on September 12, 2015. On July 4, I gave you a fully-edited, triple proofread manuscript of an anthology featuring stories from some of the best names in the business. You told me that the book would be released “in a couple of months”. On October 1 2016, you told me the book would not be released until Q1 2017. The author contracts have now expired and publication of Suspended in Dusk 2 with Books of the Dead is no longer feasible. The headlining authors such as Stephen Graham Jones and Damien Angelica Walters have resold their work elsewhere and they would not re-sign with Books of the Dead Press given a year has gone by and the anthology was never published. This hasn’t just tarnished your reputation, it has tarnished my reputation and credibility as a professional editor to some of the best names in the horror fiction business. I have already emailed you about this, and it is coming up to 3 months since your last email to me.

To make matters worse, your website has disappeared too and I’ve been fielding emails from the writers published by BOTD who are trying to work out if BOTD even exists anymore and what is happening with their books which they’re not getting royalties for but which are still being sold on Amazon etc.

In addition to the failure of Suspended in Dusk 2, each royalty payment I’ve received from Books of the Dead for Suspended in Dusk has been progressively closer to the “no later than 160 days from the end of the period” stipulated in my contract. It has now been 168 days since the end of Q2 and I still have not received payment, as per the aforementioned paragraph of the contract.

I have lost faith in Books of the Dead Press to adhere to and fulfil the contract for Suspended in Dusk 1 and the contract for Suspended in Dusk 2 has been made completely redundant by the lack of communication and action from yourself which has resulted in the lapse of all the author contracts and the sale of their fiction to other markets. The virtual disappearance of your presence in social media, the disappearance of your website and the disappearance of royalty payments within the contractually agreed time period leaves me no choice as to my actions. I regret to say that I am—without delay and on the basis of there being no “notice of default and right to cure” clause in the contract requiring me to grant you time to correct this—reclaiming my rights to both Suspended in Dusk 1 and 2. I will be requesting that Amazon remove Suspended in Dusk from their site and I will send you this as a letter via registered mail to the one address that ANY of the books of the dead authors have for you:

Books of the Dead

c/o James Roy Daley

742 Pascoe Crt.,

Oshawa, On,

Canada, L1K 1S9

I will also put the contents of this letter of this letter on my blog, in the hope that you have received this message.

I don’t know why you’ve disappeared. Maybe you’ve had some life or health problem that you needed to take care of. It happens to all of us and I genuinely hope you’re well—but I can’t do business with you and I need to take my work to someone who is visible, communicative, is paying as per my contract and who actually has their hand on the tiller.

To celebrate the impending release of Suspended in Dusk 2, Books of the Dead Press have decided to give a free ebook copy of Suspended in Dusk 2 – upon release – to anyone who writes an Amazon.com review of Suspended in Dusk between October 29 2015 and the time of the SiD 2 release. All readers need to do is email Books of the Dead Press (besthorror@gmail.com) and let us know which review is yours.

Suspended in Dusk 2 is in final stages of editing and should be released in the next couple of months.

I’ve checked out on all of that, seriously struggling to give a fuck about any of it beyond a generalised and helpless kind of sadness and concern for Kelly Laymon and the other affected victims of sexual assault and fraud. Whether people are being nice or naughty, treating each other well or poorly, whether they’re having fun or not, whether they’re being successful or failing… It’s freaking great to not know about it, and more importantly to not give a fuck about it either.

A corollary of that is, I’m taking a well-deserved break from social media.

I’m not quite The Man who Walked Away from Facebook (no one has stolen my horse yet!!), however stepping off the merry-go-round has allowed me to become far more productive. I’m aware of some things that are going on in the horror/writing world and am maintaining some level of contact with some people. If you feel you need to speak to me, email me.

Note: I have no updates on the RJ Cavender scandal. No further news from Indiegogo than that they’re investigating whether the campaigns. RJ Cavender’s Indiegogo campaign site are still live. I have received no word from Stanley Hotel or Winchester mystery house and no response to the long emails I sent both. Well, I threw that shit at the wall and it seems like nothing has actually stuck, so I’ve turned my attention to other things which are more interesting and better for my mental health.

In the last week:

I’ve sent edits to 3 authors for Suspended in Dusk 2. I have a small number of edits left before proof reading begins and I finally compile the final manuscript and send it to Books of the Dead Press.

I have sent three lots of edits, and 1 manuscript assessment and suggested markets for story submission, to people who bought edits out of the StokerCon or Bust fundraising campaign for Marni Molina. Marni is probably at Las Vegas or landing there now, ready to enjoy a weekend away, maybe learn some things, catch up with old friends, network with new ones.

I have written several thousand words of an essay on nailing the start of a new short story. The essay will be published in the next few weeks and will include quotes from some fantastic authors and editors and my own general spin on things.

I have received my royalty statements letting me know that I’m still selling roughly 750 (mostly ebook) copies of Suspended in Dusk a quarter. This is encouraging because, I’m quite proud of that book; there’s lots of great stories in there; I’m very happy that some of the less established authors are getting “exposure” (heh.) to a wide reading audience via my book—one that was released in 2014! (Note: The publisher did also pay them money.)

I feel like I’ve levelled up a bit with my editing or have certainly attained a greater amount of confidence, especially in asking authors to make changes that I feel are necessary for a story. Ultimately, this is good for both me and the authors.

I’m super pleased with this new direction and I’m happy that Suspended in Dusk 2 is moving more swiftly towards its final published state.